ON  THE  EXECUTION  OF 

MUSIC,AND  PRINCIPALLY 

OF  ANCIENT  MUSIC 


BY 
M.  CAMILLE  SAINT-SAENS 


'  EX.LIBRK  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 


JOHN  HENRf  NASH  LIBRARY 

<$>  SAN  FRANCISCO  <8> 

PRESENTED  TO  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 


ROBERT  GORDON  SPROUL.  PRESIDENT. 
«>   BY"  ^ 

MR.ANDMRS.MILTON  S.  RAY- 
CECILY,  VIRGINIA  AND  ROSALYN  RAY 


RAY  OIL  BURNER  COMPANY 


University  of  California  •  Berkeley 


ON  THE  EXECUTION  OF 

MUSIC,  AND  PRINCIPALLY 

OF  ANCIENT  MUSIC 


BY 

M.CAMILLE  SAINT-SAENS 

Delivered  at  the 

"Salon  de  la  Pensee  Franqaise" 

Panama-Pacific  International  Exposition 

San  Francisco,  "June  First 

Nineteen  Hundred 

&  Fifteen 


DONE  INTO  ENGLISH 
WITH  EXPLANATORY  NOTES  BY 

HENRY  P.  BOWIE 


SAN  FRANCISCO: 

THE  BLAIR-MURDOCK  COMPANY 
1915 


Copyright, 
by  M.  Camille  Saint- S  a  ens 


ON  THE  EXECUTION  OF 

MUSIC,  AND  PRINCIPALLY 

OF  ANCIENT  MUSIC 

USIC  was  written  in  a  scrawl 
impossible  to  decipher  up  to  the 
thirteenth  century,  when  Plain 
Song1  (Plain  Chant)  made  its 
appearance  in  square  and  dia- 
mond-shaped notes.  The  grad- 
uals  and  introits  had  not  yet  been 
reduced  to  bars,  but  the  songs  of 
the  troubadours  appear  to  have  been  in  bars  of  three 
beats  with  the  accent  on  the  feeble  note  of  each  bar. 
However,  the  theory  that  this  bar  of  three  beats  or 
triple  time  was  used  exclusively  is  probably  erron- 
eous. St.  Isidore,  in  his  treatise  on  music,  speaking  of 
how  Plain  Song  should  be  interpreted,  considers  in 
turn  all  the  voices  and  recommends  those  which  are 
high,  sweet  and  clear,  for  the  execution  of  vocal 
sounds,  introits,  graduals,  offertories,  etc.  This  is  ex- 
actly contrary  to  what  we  now  do,  since  in  place  of 
utilizing  these  light  tenor  voices  for  Plain  Song,  we 
have  recourse  to  voices  both  heavy  and  low. 


On  the  Execution  of  Music 


In  the  last  century  when  it  was  desired  to  restore 
Plain  Song  to  its  primitive  purity,  one  met  with  in- 
surmountable obstacles  due  to  its  prodigious  pro- 
lixity of  long  series  of  notes,  repeating  indefinitely 
the  same  musical  forms;  but  in  considering  this  in 
the  light  of  explanations  given  by  St.  Isidore,  and  in 
view  of  the  Oriental  origin  of  the  Christian  religion, 
we  are  led  to  infer  that  these  long  series  of  notes  were 
chants  or  vocalizations  analogous  to  the  songs  of  the 
Muezzins  of  the  Orient.  At  the  beginning  of  the  six- 
teenth century  musical  laws  began  to  be  elaborated 
without,  however,  in  this  evolution  towards  modern 
tonal  art,  departing  entirely  from  all  influence  of  the 
antique  methods.  The  school  named  after  Palestrina 
employed  as  yet  only  the  triads  or  perfect  chords; 
this  prevented  absolutely  all  expression,  although 
some  traces  of  it  appear  in  the  "Stabat  Mater"  of 
that  composer.  This  music,  ecclesiastical  in  charac- 
ter, in  which  it  would  have  been  chimerical  to  try 
to  introduce  modern  expression,  flourished  in  France, 
in  Flanders,  in  Spain  at  the  same  time  as  in  Italy, 
and  enjoyed  the  favor  of  Pope  Marcellus,  who  recog- 
nized the  merit  of  Palestrina  in  breaking  loose  from 
the  grievous  practice  of  adapting  popular  songs  to 
church  music. 

In  the  middle  ages,  as  in  antiquity,  the  laws  of 
harmony  were  unknown;  when  it  was  desired  to  sing 
in  two  parts,  they  sang  at  first  in  intervals  of  fifths 
and  fourths,  where  it  would  have  seemed  much  more 
natural  to  sing  in  thirds  and  sixths.  Such  first  at- 
tempts at  music  in  several  parts  were  made  in  the 


A  nd  Principally  of  A  ncient  Music         3 

thirteenth,  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries,  when 
they  were  hunting  for  laws,  and  such  music  was  dis- 
cordant. It  bore  the  name  of  Diaphony.  The  real 
Polyphony  came  in  the  sixteenth  century  with  the 
school  of  Palestrina. 

Later  on,  little  by  little,  laws  were  established,  not 
arbitrarily,  but  laws  resulting  from  a  long  experience, 
and  during  all  the  sixteenth  century  admirable  music 
was  written,  though  deprived  of  melody,  properly 
speaking.  Melody  was  reserved  for  dance  music 
which,  in  fact,  was  perfectly  written  in  four  and  even 
in  five  part  scores,  as  I  have  been  able  to  convince 
myself  in  hunting  for  dance  music  of  the  sixteenth 
century  for  my  opera  "Ascanio." 

But  no  indication  of  movement,  nuances  or  shad- 
ing, enlightens  us  as  to  the  manner  in  which  this 
music  should  be  interpreted.  At  Paris  the  first  at- 
tempts to  execute  the  music  of  Palestrina  were  made 
in  the  time  of  Louis  Philippe,  by  the  Prince  of  Mos- 
cow. He  had  founded  a  choral  society  of  amateurs, 
all  titled,  but  gifted  with  good  voices  and  a  certain 
musical  talent.  This  society  executed  many  of  the 
works  of  Palestrina  and  particularly  the  famous 
"Mass  of  Pope  Marcellus."  They  adopted  at  that 
time  the  method  of  singing  most  of  these  pieces  very 
softly  and  with  an  extreme  slowness  so  that  in  the 
long-sustained  notes  the  singers  were  forced  to  divide 
their  task  by  some  taking  up  the  sound  when  the 
others  were  out  of  breath.  Consonant  chords  thus 
presented  evidently  produced  music  which  was  very 
agreeable  to  the  ear,  but  unquestionably  the  author 


On  the  Execution  of  Music 


could  not  recognize  his  work  in  such  rendering.  Quite 
different  was  the  method  of  the  singers  in  the  Sistine 
Chapel  when  I  heard  them  for  the  first  time  in  Rome 
in  1855  when  they  sung  the  "Sicut  Cervus"  of  Pales- 
trina.  They  roared  in  a  head-splitting  way  without 
the  least  regard  for  the  pleasure  of  the  listener,  or 
for  the  meaning  of  the  words  they  sang.  It  is  difficult 
to  believe  that  this  music  was  ever  composed  to  be 
executed  in  such  a  barbarous  manner,  which,  it  seems 
to  me,  differs  completely  from  our  musical  concep- 
tions ;  and  it  is  a  great  mistake  also  in  modern  editions 
of  such  music  to  introduce  delicate  shadings  or  nu- 
ances and  even  employ  the  words  "very  expressive." 

Palestrina  has  had  his  admirers  among  French  lit- 
erary writers.  We  recall  the  scene  created  by  Octave 
Feuillet  in  "M.  de  Camors."  M.  de  Camors  is  at  his 
window;  a  lady  is  at  the  piano;  a  gentleman  at  the 
cello,  and  another  lady  sings  the  Mass  of  Palestrina 
which  I  have  referred  to  above.  Such  a  way  of  play- 
ing this  music  is  simply  out  of  the  question.  Feuillet 
had  obtained  his  inspiration  for  this  from  a  fanciful 
painting  which  he  had  seen  somewhere. 

Expression  was  introduced  into  music  by  the  chord 
of  the  dominant  seventh,  the  invention  of  which  is 
attributed  to  Monteverde.  However,  Palestrina  had 
already  employed  that  chord  in  his  "Adoremus,"  but 
probably  without  understanding,  its  importance  or 
divining  its  future. 

Before  this  invention  the  interval  of  three  whole 
tones  (Triton)  was  considered  an  intolerable  dis- 
sonance and  was  called  "the  devil  in  music."  The 


A  nd  Principally  of  A  ncient  Music         5 

dominant  seventh  has  been  the  open  door  to  all  dis- 
sonances and  to  the  domain  of  expression.  It  was  a 
death  blow  to  that  learned  music  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury; it  was  the  arrival  of  the  reign  of  melody — of 
the  development  of  the  art  of  singing.  Very  often 
the  song  or  the  solo  instrument  would  be  accompanied 
by  a  simple,  ciphered  bass,  the  ciphers  indicating  the 
chords  which  he  who  accompanied  should  play  as 
well  as  he  could,  either  on  the  harpsichord  or  the 
theorbe.  The  theorbe  was  an  admirable  instrument 
which  is  now  to  be  found  only  in  museums, — a  sort 
of  enormous  guitar  with  a  long  neck  and  multiple 
strings  which  offered  great  opportunities  to  a  skilful 
artist. 

It  is  curious  to  note  that  in  ancient  times  there  was 
not  attributed  to  the  minor  and  major  keys  the  same 
character  as  is  assigned  them  to-day.2  The  joyous 
canticle  of  the  Catholic  church,  "O  Filii  et  Filiae,"  is 
in  the  minor.  "The  Romanesca,"  a  dance  air  of  the 
sixteenth  century,  is  equally  in  the  minor,  just  like  all 
the  dance  airs  of  Lully,  and  of  Rameau,  and  the  ga- 
vottes of  Sebastian  Bach.  The  celebrated  "Funeral 
March"  of  Haendel,  reproduced  in  many  of  his 
works,  is  in  C  Major.  The  delicious  love  duo  of 
Acis  and  Galathee,  which  changes  to  a  trio  by  the  ad- 
dition of  the  part  of  Polyphemus,  is  in  A  Minor. 
When  Galathee  weeps  afterward  over  the  death  of 
Acis,  the  air  is  in  F  Major.  It  is  only  recently  that 
we  find  dance  airs  in  the  major  mood  or  key. 

From  the  seventeenth  century  on,  music  entered 
into  everyday  life,  never  again  to  be  separated  from 


On  the  Execution  of  Music 


it.  Thus  music  has  remained  in  favor,  and  we  are 
continually  hearing  executed  the  works  of  Bach,  of 
Haendel,  of  Hayden,  of  Mozart  and  of  Beethoven. 
How  are  such  works  executed?  Are  they  executed 
as  they  should  be?  That  is  another  question. 

One  source  of  error  is  found  in  the  evolution  which 
musical  instruments  have  undergone.  In  the  time 
of  Bach  and  Haendel  the  bow  truly  merited  its  Ital- 
ian name  of  "arco."  It  was  curved  like  an  arc — the 
hairs  of  the  bow  constituted  the  chord  of  the  arc,  a 
very  great  flexibility  resulting  which  allowed  the 
strings  of  the  instrument  to  be  enveloped  and  to  be 
played  simultaneously.  The  bow  seldom  quitted  the 
strings,  doing  so  only  in  rare  cases  and  when  espe- 
cially indicated.  On  this  account  it  happens  that  the 
indication  of  "legato"  is  very  rare.  Even  though 
there  was  a  separate  stroke  of  the  bow  for  each  note, 
the  notes  were  not  separated  one  from  the  other. 
Nowadays  the  form  of  the  bow  is  completely 
changed.  The  execution  of  the  music  is  based  upon 
the  detached  bow,  and  although  it  is  easy  to  keep  the 
bow  upon  the  strings  just  as  they  did  at  the  com- 
mencement of  the  nineteenth  century,  performers 
have  lost  the  habit  of  it.  The  result  is  that  they  give 
to  ancient  music  a  character  of  perpetually  jumping, 
which  completely  destroys  its  nature. 

The  very  opposite  movement  has  been  produced  in 
instruments  of  the  key  or  piano  type.  The  precise 
indications  of  Mozart  show  that  "non-legato,"  which 
doesn't  mean  at  all  "staccato,"  was  the  ordinary  way 
of  playing  the  instrument,  and  that  the  veritable 


And  Principally  of  Ancient  Music         7 

"legato"  was  played  only  where  the  author  specially 
indicated  it.  The  clavecin  or  harpsichord,  which  pre- 
ceded the  piano,  when  complete  with  two  banks  of 
keys,  many  registers  giving  the  octaves  and  different 
tone  qualities,  oftentimes  like  the  organ  with  a  key  for 
pedals,  offered  resources  which  the  piano  does  not  pos- 
sess. A  Polish  lady,  Madame  Landowska,  has  studied 
thoroughly  these  resources,  and  has  shown  us  how 
pieces  written  for  this  instrument  thus  disclosed  ele- 
ments of  variety  which  are  totally  missing  when  the 
same  are  played  upon  the  piano;  but  the  clavecin  tone 
lacked  fulness,  and  shadings  or  nuances  were  out  of 
the  question. 

Sonority  or  tone  was  varied  by  changing  the  keys 
or  register  just  as  on  the  organ.  On  the  other  hand, 
with  the  piano  one  can  vary  the  sonority  by  augment- 
ing or  diminishing  the  force  of  the  attack,  hence  its 
original  name  of  "forte  piano," — a  name  too  long, 
which  was  shortened  at  first  by  suppressing  the  last 
syllables;  so  that  one  reads,  not  without  astonish- 
ment, in  the  accounts  given  of  young  Mozart,  of  the 
skill  he  showed  in  playing  "forte"  at  a  time  when  he 
was  playing  on  instruments  of  a  very  feeble  tone. 
Nowadays  when  athletic  artists  exert  all  their  force 
upon  the  modern  instruments  of  terrific  sonority,  they 
are  said  to  play  the  "piano"  (toucher  du  piano}. 

We  must  conclude  that  the  indication  "non-legato" 
finally  degenerated  into  meaning  "staccato."  In  my 
youth  I  heard  persons  advanced  in  age  whose  per- 
formance on  the  piano  was  extremely  dry  and  jumpy. 
Then  a  reaction  took  place.  The  tyrannical  reign  of 


8  On  the  Execution  of  Music 

the  perpetual  "legato"  succeeded.  It  was  decided  that 
in  piano  playing  unless  indicated  to  the  contrary,  and 
even  at  times  in  spite  of  such  indication,  everything 
everywhere  should  be  tied  together.3  This  was  a  great 
misfortune  of  which  Kalkbrenner  gives  a  manifest 
proof  in  the  arrangement  he  has  made  of  Beethoven's 
symphonies.  Besides,  this  "legato"  tyranny  continues. 
Notwithstanding  the  example  of  Liszt,  the  greatest 
pianist  of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  notwithstand- 
ing his  numerous  pupils,  the  fatal  school  of  the 
"legato"  has  prevailed, — not  that  it  is  unfortunate  in 
itself,  but  because  it  has  perverted  the  intentions  of 
musical  authors.  Our  French  professors  have  fol- 
lowed the  example  of  Kalkbrenner. 

The  house  of  Breitkopf,  which  until  lately  had  the 
best  editions  of  the  German  classics,  has  substituted 
in  their  places  new  editions  where  professors  have 
eagerly  striven  to  perfect  in  their  own  manner  the 
music  of  the  masters.  When  this  great  house  wished 
to  make  a  complete  edition  of  the  works  of  Mozart, 
which  are  prodigiously  numerous,  it  appealed  to  all 
who  possessed  manuscripts  of  Mozart,  and  then  hav- 
ing gathered  these  most  precious  documents,  instead 
of  reproducing  them  faithfully,  that  house  believed 
it  was  doing  well  to  leave  to  the  professors  full  liberty 
of  treatment  and  change.  Thus  that  admirable  series 
of  concertos  for  piano  has  been  ornamented  by  Karl 
Reinecke  with  a  series  of  joined  notes,  tied  notes, 
legato,  molto  legato,  and  sempre  legato  which  are 
the  very  opposite  of  what  the  composer  intended. 
Worse  still,  in  a  piece  which  Mozart  had  the  genial 


A  nd  Principally  of  A  ncient  Music         9 

idea  of  terminating  suddenly  with  a  delicately  shaded 
phrase,  they  have  taken  out  such  nuances  and  termi- 
nated the  piece  with  a  forte  passage  of  the  most  com- 
monplace character. 

One  other  plague  in  modern  editions  is  the  abuse 
of  the  pedal.  Mozart  never  indicated  the  pedal.  As 
purity  of  taste  is  one  of  his  great  qualities,  it  is  prob- 
able that  he  made  no  abuse  of  the  pedal.  Beethoven 
indicated  it  in  a  complicated  and  cumbersome  man- 
ner. When  he  wanted  the  pedal  he  wrote  "senza 
sordini,"  which  means  without  dampers,  and  to  take 
them  off  he  wrote  "con  sordini,"  meaning  with  damp- 
ers. The  soft  pedal  is  indicated  by  "una  corda."  The 
indication  to  take  it  off,  an  indication  which  exists 
even  now,  was  written  "tre  corde."  The  indication 
"ped"  for  the  grand  pedal  is  assuredly  more  conve- 
nient, but  that  is  no  reason  for  making  an  abuse  of 
it  and  inflicting  it  upon  the  author  where  his  writing 
indicates  the  contrary. 

As  it  seems  to  me,  it  is  only  from  the  eighteenth 
century  that  authors  have  indicated  the  movements 
of  their  compositions,  but  the  words  which  they  have 
employed  have  changed  in  sense  with  time.  For- 
merly the  difference  between  the  slowest  movement 
and  the  most  rapid  movement  was  much  less  than 
at  present.  The  "largo"  was  only  an  "adagio"  and 
the  "presto"  would  be  scarcely  an  "allegro"  to-day. 

The  "andante"  which  now  indicates  a  slow  move- 
ment, had  at  that  time  its  original  signification,  mean- 
ing "going."  It  was  an  "allegro  moderate."  Haendel 
often  wrote  "andante  allegro."  Through  ignorance 


i  o  On  the  Execution  of  Music 

of  that  fact  the  beautiful  air  of  Gluck,  "Divinities  of 
the  Styx,"  is  sung  too  slowly  and  the  air  of  Thaos  in 
the  "Iphigenia  in  Tauris"  equally  so.  Berlioz  recol- 
lected having  heard  at  the  opera  in  his  youth  a  much 
more  animated  execution  of  these  works. 

Finally,  in  ancient  times  notes  were  not  defined  as 
they  are  to-day  and  their  value  was  approximative 
only.  This  liberty  in  the  execution  of  music  is  par- 
ticularly perceptible  in  the  works  of  Rameau.  To 
conform  to  his  intentions  in  the  vocal  part  such 
music  must  not  be  interpreted  literally.  One  must  be 
governed  by  the  declamation,  and  not  by  the  written 
note  indicating  a  long  or  short  duration.  The  proof 
of  this  is  to  be  seen  when  the  violins  and  the  voice  are 
in  unison — the  way  of  writing  them  is  different. 

A  great  obstacle  to  executing  ancient  works  from 
the  eighteenth  century  on  is  in  the  interpretation  of 
grace  notes,  "appoggiaturas"  and  others.  In  these 
cases  there  is  an  unfortunate  habit  in  players  of  con- 
forming to  their  own  taste,  which  may  guide  a  little, 
but  cannot  suffice  in  every  instance.  One  can  be  con- 
vinced of  this  in  studying  The  Method  of  Violin  by 
the  father  of  Mozart.  We  find  there  things  which 
one  would  never  dream  of. 

The  "appoggiatura"4  (from  appoggiare,  which 
in  Italian  means  "to  lean  upon"),  should  always  be 
long,  the  different  ways  in  which  it  may  be  written 
having  no  influence  upon  its  length.  There  is  an  ex- 
ception to  this  when  its  final  little  note,  ascending  or 
descending,  and  preceding  the  larger  note,  is  distant 
from  it  a  disjointed  degree.  In  this  case  it  is  not  an 


A  nd  Principally  of  A  ncient  Music        1 1 

"appoggiatura,"  and  should  be  played  short.  In  many 
cases  it  prolongs  the  duration  of  the  note  which  fol- 
lows it.  It  may  even  alter  the  value  of  the  notes  fol- 
lowing. 

I  will  cite  in  connection  with  the  subject  of  the 
"appoggiatura"  the  beautiful  duo  with  chorus  of  the 
"Passion  According  to  St.  Matthew,"  and  at  the  same 
time,  I  would  point  out  the  error  committed  in  mak- 
ing of  this  passion  a  most  grandios  performance  with 
grand  choral  and  instrumental  masses.  One  is  de- 
ceived by  its  noble  character,  by  its  two  choruses,  by 
its  two  orchestras,  and  one  forgets  that  it  was  destined 
for  the  little  Church  of  St.  Thomas  in  Leipsig,  where 
Sebastian  Bach  was  organist.  While  in  certain  can- 
tatas that  composer  employed  horns,  trumpets,  trom- 
bones and  cymbals,  for  the  "Passion  According  to 
St.  Matthew,"  he  only  used  in  each  of  the  orchestras 
two  flutes,  two  hautbois,  changing  from  the  ordinary 
hautbois  to  the  hautbois  d'amour  and  the  hautbois 
of  the  chase, — now  the  English  horn ;  that  is  to  say, 
hautbois  pitched  a  third  and  a  fifth  lower.  These  two 
orchestras  and  these  two  choruses  then  certainly  were 
reduced  to  a  very  small  number  of  performers. 

In  all  very  ancient  music,  from  the  time  of  Lully, 
one  finds  constantly  a  little  cross  marked  over  the 
notes.  Often  this  certainly  indicates  a  trill,  but  it 
seems  difficult  to  take  it  always  to  mean  such.  How- 
ever, perhaps  fashion  desired  that  trills  should  thus 
be  made  out  of  place.  I  have  never  been  able  to  find 
an  explanation  of  this  sign,  not  even  in  the  musical 
dictionary  of  J.  J.  Rousseau.  This  dictionary  none  the 


1 2  On  the  Execution  of  Music 

less  contains  a  great  deal  of  precious  information. 
Does  it  not  inform  us,  among  other  things,  that  the 
copyists  of  former  times  were  veritable  collaborators? 
When  the  author  indicated  the  altos  with  the  basses, 
the  hautbois  with  the  violins,  these  copyists  under- 
took to  make  the  necessary  modifications.  Times  have 
unfortunately  changed  since. 

In  Rameau's  music,  certain  signs  are  unintelligible. 
Musical  treatises  of  that  time  say  that  it  is  impossible 
to  describe  them,  and  that  to  understand  them  it  was 
necessary  to  have  heard  them  interpreted  by  a  pro- 
fessor of  singing. 

With  clavecinists  the  multiplicity  of  grace  notes  is 
extreme.  As  a  rule  they  give  the  explanation  of  these 
at  the  head  of  their  works,  just  as  Rameau  did.  I  note 
a  curious  sign  which  indicates  that  the  right  hand 
should  arrive  upon  the  keys  a  little  after  the  left. 
This  shows  that  there  was  not  then  that  frightful 
habit  of  playing  one  hand  after  the  other  as  is  often 
done  nowadays. 

This  prolixity  of  grace  notes  indulged  by  players 
upon  the  clavecin  is  rather  terrifying  at  first,  but  one 
need  not  be  detained  by  them,  for  they  are  not  indis- 
pensable. The  published  methods  of  those  times  in- 
form us  in  fact  that  pupils  were  first  taught  to  play 
the  pieces  without  these  grace  notes,  and  that  they 
were  added  by  degrees.  Besides,  Rameau  in  tran- 
scribing for  the  clavecin  fragments  of  his  operas,  has 
indicated  those  grace  notes  which  the  original  did 
not  contain. 


A  nd  Principally  of  A  ncient  Music       1 3 

Ornaments  are  much  less  numerous  in  the  writings 
of  Sebastian  Bach.  Numberless  confusions  have  been 
produced  in  the  interpretation  of  the  mordant,5  or 
biting  note.  It  should  be  executed  above  or  below  the 
principal  note  depending  on  whether  the  notes  which 
precede  the  mordant  are  superior  or  inferior  to  it. 

With  reference  to  the  difficulties  in  interpreting  the 
works  of  Rameau  and  of  Gluck,  I  would  point  out 
the  change  in  the  diapason  or  pitch  which  at  that 
time  was  a  tone  lower  than  in  our  days.  The  organ 
of  St.  Merry  had  a  pitch  in  B  flat.  In  addition  to  the 
tempi  and  the  different  instruments  which  make  the 
execution  difficult,  one  must  add  the  recitatives  which 
were  very  much  employed  and  of  which  at  that  time 
a  serious  study  was  made.  I  recall  a  beautiful  ex- 
ample of  recitative  in  the  "Iphigenia  in  Tauris." 

We  come  now  to  the  modern  epoch.  From  the  time 
of  Liszt,  who  not  only  revolutionized  the  perform- 
ance of  music  on  the  piano,  but  also  the  way  of  writ- 
ing it,  authors  give  to  performers  all  necessary 
indications,  and  they  have  only  to  carefully  observe 
them.  There  are,  however,  some  interesting  remarks 
applicable  to  the  music  of  Chopin  which  recent  edi- 
tions unfortunately  are  commencing  to  falsify.  Cho- 
pin detested  the  abuse  of  the  pedal.  He  could  not 
bear  that  through  an  ignorant  employment  of  the 
pedal  two  different  chords  should  be  mixed  in  tone 
together.  Therefore,  he  has  given  indications  with 
the  greatest  pains.  Employing  it  where  he  has  not 
indicated  it,  must  be  avoided.  But  great  skill  is  nec- 
essary to  thus  do  without  the  pedal.  Therefore,  in 


14  On  the  Execution  of  Music 

the  new  editions  of  the  author,  no  account  of  the  au- 
thor's indications  whatever  is  observed.  Thus  in  the 
"Cradle  Song,"  where  the  author  has  indicated  that 
the  pedal  be  put  on  each  measure  and  taken  off  in  the 
middle  of  it,  modern  editions  preserve  the  pedal 
throughout  the  entire  measure,  thus  mixing  up  hope- 
lessly the  tonic  with  the  dominant,  which  the  com- 
poser was  so  careful  to  avoid. 

A  question  of  the  greatest  importance  in  playing 
the  music  of  Chopin  is  that  of  "tempo  rubato."  That 
does  not  mean,  as  many  think,  that  the  time  is  to  be 
dislocated.  It  means  permitting  great  liberty  to  the 
singing  part  or  melody  of  the  composition,  while 
the  accompaniment  keeps  rigorous  time.  Mozart 
played  in  this  way  and  he  speaks  of  it  in  one  of  his 
letters  and  he  describes  it  marvelously,  only  the  term 
"tempo  rubato"  had  not  at  that  time  been  invented. 
This  kind  of  playing,  demanding  complete  independ- 
ence of  the  two  hands,  is  not  within  the  ability  of 
everybody.  Therefore,  to  give  the  illusion  of  such 
effect,  players  dislocate  the  bass  and  destroy  the 
rhythm  of  the  bar.  When  to  this  disorder  is  joined  the 
abuse  of  the  pedal,  there  results  that  vicious  execu- 
tion which,  passing  muster,  is  generally  accepted  in 
the  salons  and  often  elsewhere. 

Another  plague  in  the  modern  execution  of  music 
is  the  abuse  of  the  tremolo  by  both  singers  and  instru- 
mental performers.  With  singers,  this  quivering,  is 
often  the  result  of  a  fatigued  voice,  in  which  case  it 
is  involuntary  and  is  only  to  be  deplored;  but  that 
is  not  the  case  with  violin  and  violoncello  players.  It 


A  nd  Principally  of  A  ncient  Music        1 5 

is  a  fashion  with  them  born  of  a  desire  to  make  an  ef- 
fect at  any  cost,  and  is  due  to  the  depraved  taste  of  the 
public  for  a  passionate  execution  of  music;  but  art 
does  not  live  on  passion  alone.  In  our  time,  when  art, 
through  an  admirable  evolution,  has  conquered  all 
domains,  music  should  express  all,  from  the  most 
perfect  calm  to  the  most  violent  emotions.  When  one 
is  strongly  moved  the  voice  is  altered,  and  in  moving 
situations  the  singer  should  make  his  voice  vibrate. 
Formerly  the  German  female  singers  sang  with  all 
their  voice,  without  any  vibration  in  the  sound  and 
without  any  reference  to  the  situation ;  one  would  say 
they  were  clarinets.  Now,  one  must  vibrate  all  the 
time.  I  heard  the  Meistersingers'  quintette  sung  in 
Paris.  It  was  dreadful  and  the  composition  incom- 
prehensible. Not  all  singers,  fortunately,  have  this 
defect,  but  it  has  taken  possession  of  violinists  and 
'cello  players.  That  was  not  the  way  Franchomme, 
the  'cello  player  and  collaborator  of  Chopin,  played, 
nor  was  it  the  way  Sarasate,  Sivori  or  Joachim 
played. 

I  have  written  a  concerto,  the  first  and  last  move- 
ments of  which  are  very  passionate.  They  are  sep- 
arated by  a  movement  of  the  greatest  calm, — a  lake 
between  two  mountains.  Those  great  violin  players 
who  do  me  the  honor  to  play  this  piece,  do  not  under- 
stand the  contrast  and  they  vibrate  on  the  lake  just  as 
they  do  on  the  mountains.  Sarasate,  for  whom  this 
concerto  was  written,  was  as  calm  on  the  lake  as  he 
was  agitated  on  the  mountains;  nor  did  he  fail  on 
this  account  to  produce  always  a  great  effect — for 


1 6  On  the  Execution  of  Music 

there  is  nothing  like  giving  to  music  its  veritable 
character. 

Anciently  music  was  not  written  as  scrupulously  as 
it  is  to-day,  and  a  certain  liberty  was  permitted  to  in- 
terpretation. This  liberty  went  farther  than  one  would 
think,  resembling  much  what  the  great  Italian  sing- 
ers furnished  examples  of  in  the  days  of  Rubini  and 
Malibran.  They  did  not  hesitate  to  embroider  the 
compositions,  and  the  reprises  were  widespread.  Re- 
prises meant  that  when  the  same  piece  was  sung  a  sec- 
ond time,  the  executants  gave  free  bridle  to  their  own 
inspiration.  I  have  heard  in  my  youth  the  last  echoes 
of  this  style  of  performance.  Nowadays  reprises  are 
suppressed,  and  that  is  more  prudent.  However,  it 
would  be  betraying  the  intentions  of  Mozart  to  exe- 
cute literally  many  passages  in  concertos  written  by 
that  author  for  the  piano.  At  times  he  would  write  a 
veritable  scheme  only,  upon  which  he  would  im- 
provise. However,  one  should  not  imitate  Kalkbren- 
ner,  who,  in  executing  at  Paris  the  great  concerto  in 
C  Major  of  Mozart,  had  rewritten  all  its  passages 
in  a  different  manner  from  the  author.  On  the  other 
hand,  when  I  played  at  the  Conservatoire  in  Paris 
Mozart's  magnificent  concerto  in  C  Minor,  I  would 
have  thought  I  was  committing  a  crime  in  executing 
literally  the  piano  part  of  the  Adagio,  which  would 
have  been  absurd  if  thus  presented  in  the  midst  of 
an  orchestra  of  great  tonal  wealth.  There  as  else- 
where the  letter  kills;  the  spirit  vivifies.  But  in  a 
case  like  that  one  must  know  Mozart  and  assimilate 
his  style,  which  demands  a  long  study. 


EXPLANATORY   NOTES 

1  Plain  Song  (Fr.  Plain  Chant)  was  the  earliest  form  of 
Christian  church  music.  As  its  name  indicates,  it  was  a 
plain,  artless  chant  without  rhythm,  accent,  modulation 
or  accompaniment,  and  was  first  sung  in  unison.  Oriental 
or  Grecian  in  origin,  it  had  four  keys  called  Authentic 
Modes,  to  which  were  added  later  four  more  called  Plagal 
Modes.  These  modes,  called  Phrygian,  Dorian,  Lydian, 
etc.,  are  merely  different  presentations  in  the  regular  order 
of  the  notes  of  the  C  Major  scale — first,  with  D  as  the 
initial  or  tonic  note,  then  with  E  et  seq.  They  lack  the 
sentiment  of  a  leading  seventh  note.  In  these  weird  keys 
Plain  Song  was  conceived  for  psalms,  graduals,  introits, 
and  other  offices  of  the  primitive  church.  Such  music  was 
generally  called  Gregorian,  because  St.  Gregory,  Pope  of 
Rome  in  the  seventh  century,  collected  and  codified  it, 
adding  thereto  his  own  contributions.  Two  centuries  pre- 
vious it  was  known  as  Ambrosian  music,  after  St.  Ambrose, 
Bishop  of  Milan. 

Originally,  a  single  chorister  intoned  the  Plain  Song,  to 
which  a  full  chorus  responded.  Later  this  manner  was 
altered  to  antiphonal  singing — two  choruses  being  used, 
one  for  the  initial  and  the  other  for  the  responsive  chant. 
Such  music  thus  rendered  was  singularly  grave,  dignified, 
and  awe-inspiring. 

During  the  middle  ages  Plain  Song  unfortunately  de- 
generated much  from  its  original  sacred  character,  and,  in 
one  disguise  or  another,  popular  and  even  indecorous  songs 
were  smuggled  into  it.  In  the  time  of  Pope  Marcellus, 


i8 


Explanatory  Notes 


1576,  Palestrina  was  employed  to  purge  Gregorian  music 
of  its  scandalous  laxities. 

M.  Saint-Saens,  to  illustrate  the  clever  way  in  which 
popular  songs  were  given  an  ecclesiastical  or  Plain  Song 
character,  has  here  added  to  his  luminous  lecture  the  fol- 
lowing precious  original  composition,  reproduced  in 
facsimile,  in  which  through  ingenious  contrapuntal  treat- 
ment he  gives  a  mock  sacred  form  to  an  old  French  ditty, 
"I  Have  Some  Good  Tobacco  in  My  Snuffbox." 


"It  is  apparent  here  that  by  assigning  the  melody  to  the 
tenor  part,  it  is  unrecognizable.  Oftentimes  licentious 
songs  were  taken  as  the  Plain  Chant  text,  and  on  this  ac- 
count Pope  Marcellus  commissioned  Palestrina  to  put  an 
end  to  such  practices." 


Explanatory  Notes 


In  a  note  he  adds :  "It  must  be  remembered  that  before 
popular  songs  were  thus  treated  in  counterpoint  [which 
means  that  while  the  song  is  being  produced  by  one  voice, 
the  other  voice  or  voices  are  singing  against  it  notes  en- 
tirely different  from  the  melody],  the  text  for  that  kind 
of  treatment  was  the  Plain  Song — the  singing  of  which 
was  always  assigned  to  the  tenor  part.  In  my  youth  I  have 
heard  graduals  treated  in  this  fashion  at  High  Mass  in 
my  parish  church  of  St.  Sulpice  in  Paris,  which  is  still 
renowned  for  the  splendor  of  its  ceremonials." 


2 There  are  here  illustrations  of  (a)  the  difference  be- 
tween the  written  manner  of  Gluck,  in  a  passage  from  his 
"Alceste" — and  the  actually  correct  way  of  interpreting 
and  playing  it;  (b)  a  passage  from  the  scherzo  of  Men- 
delssohn's string  quartet, — to  show  how  a  gay  subject  can 
be  treated  in  the  minor  mood — and  M.  Saint-Saens  adds: 
"Mendelssohn's  scherzo  of  his  'Midsummer  Night's 
Dream'  is  in  sol  minor  but  it  evokes  no  idea  of  sadness, 
although  oftentimes  those  who  play  it,  deceived  by  its 
minor  mood,  give  it  a  melancholy  character,  which  is  very 
far  from  what  the  composer  intended." 


20 


Explanatory  Notes 


3  Here  M.  Saint-Saens  has  written  a  passage  from  a 
piano  concerto  of  Mozart  to  illustrate  how  that  com- 
poser wished  the  non-legato  to  be  interpreted — namely,  in 
a  flute-like  manner, — the  piano  repeating  textually  the 
passages  indicated  to  be  played  first  by  the  flutes. 

Again  he  illustrates  the  same  subject  with  a  passage 
taken  from  a  piano  and  violin  sonata  of  Beethoven. 
The  non-legato  passages  here  are  not  to  be  played  on  the 
violin  in  a  way  approaching  the  staccato,  although  they 
are  written  as  detached  notes;  and  the  piano  part  follows 
the  rendering  of  the  violin. 

A  final  illustration  is  furnished  in  the  "Turkish  March" 
of  Mozart. 


Explanatory  Notes 


21 


The  proper  manner  of  writing  the  graceful  gruppetto 
is  here  given — with  an  illustration  following  of  how  it  is 
to  be  correctly  played,  and  how  it  is  incorrectly  executed. 

Next  is  illustrated  the  two  ways  of  playing  the  mordant. 

4  Finally,  are  several  examples  of  the  appoggiature, — 
showing  both  the  way  they  are  written,  and  the  way  they 
are.  to  be  executed. 

The  last  line  of  the  music  above  is  an  example  of  how 
in  Haendel  the  rhythm  as  interpreted  differs  from  that  in 
which  the  passage  is  written. 


.2 


